Neoseeker's PlayStation Meeting 2013 Live Blog

Sony opens the Ark of the Covenant and reveals its next-gen PlayStation

Welcome one and all to our live coverage of Sony's live PlayStation Meeting 2013! Here's where we'll be blogging updates as they come from the event. We're expecting a ton of wild and craziness, so make sure to stick around and refresh the page every now and then. I'm Rory and I'll be doing most of the commentary, but if Lydia wants to jump in I'll highlight her posts with an *L. Check out the stream: here (keep refreshing the page until it loads).

5:04 - Thanks to everyone for joining us and huge thanks to Lydia for all the great images! Thank you for watching. If you want to watch to stream over again, it should be repeating soon at the link above.

5:03 - Sony suit back on stage leading into the end of the presentation. "Coming holiday 2013." One last announcement? Montage right now showing off all that was shown during the event. Wow, time to step back and think about all this stuff. Lots exciting stuff.

5:01 - A couple of the top folk from Bungie being welcomed to the stage. They all look really awkward. "Both the PS4 and PS3 will be available at Destiny's launch." Also, exclusive content for Sony.

4:59 - "Last week we unveiled Destiny." A bit more in-game footage? Please, yes, and thank you. "Destiny is going to be amazing on PlayStation 4." Quite a bit more gameplay footage. It looks... kinda like Halo mixed with Guild Wars 2.

4:57 - One more partner being welcomed to the stage. Of course, it's Activision and Eric Hirshberg. Multiple blockbusters in the launch window. More information in coming months. Excited to be a part of next gen games for the next gen platform from Sony. One developer who has been out of the light for over a decade. Destiny's coming to the PlayStation 4.

4:52 - Chris Metzen from Blizzard takes the stage. "Many of you are probably wondering..." uh, yes we are Chris Metzen. Why are you here? Blizzard is a PC developer! This guy is slick. "Blizzard was originally a console developer." Blizzard is bringing Diablo III to the PlayStation 4. "Painstakingly optimized our control schemes." Look forward to PAX East for live demos.

4:49 - The protagonist makes a power supply explode from a distance and neutralizes the criminal. Now the police are on him. He pauses time and shoots out a cop car's tire. He's still running. He makes a train pause in front of him and hops on top of it. Cameras are following his movement, and the dude fails his contract because of detection.

4:47 - "Now, everybody's broadcasting." Gameplay? Looks like gameplay. Graphically impressive, as expected. Dude in a trenchcoat crossing the street. He's inspecting a homeless guy, then a pro-life activist. This dude is able to get information on anyone he wants as he walks around. Now he's inspecting a camera. "Potential Victim 30%" reads the description on one person. He follows her into an alley, finds a guy with a high crime probability, and pulls a gun on him! They start a chase and a gunfight.

4:43 - CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot takes the stage to talk about creating many games across many devices. Watch Dogs? Hard to tell what he's leading into. It's Watch Dogs! This dude is kinda creepy. I think his accent is contributing to it. It wouldn't be Ubisoft if it wasn't totally awkward! Trailer go!

4:41 - Oh jeez, Shinji Hashimoto, brand manager of Final Fantasy is taking the stage. He says they are preparing a new Final Fantasy title and to be excited for E3 this year. Ubisoft coming next.

4:35 - A demo being shown on the Luminous Engine. No game announcement. Sorry Final Fantasy fans. Stream is really laggy. Ack, it might be the same Luminous Engine trailer we've seen before? It's an odd ceremony, a lady takes off her ceremonial robes, they summoned Ifrit or something. Now she's running from dudes with guns. Yeah I think this is what we've seen already.

4:34 - Square Enix taking the stage. Oh, noes.

4:30 - Codename Panta Rhei. Showing images of crazy realisitic models. No game so far though. It's an engine designed to take games in entirely new directions. A new IP being teased. It looks like a hyper-realistic Dark Souls. Tentatively titled: Deep Down. So much like a Dark Souls game. Beautiful visuals. A fantasy adventuring party going through a dungeon, happening on a dragon. "Conquer your fear, or die a coward."

4:28 - Ono is recapping Capcom's past. Ya, ya Ono. You wouldn't be here if you weren't announcing a new fighting game. Bring it on!

4:27 - Virtually every 3rd party publisher will be supporting. Yoshinoro Ono! Capcom!

4:23 - They're showing off... hundreds of sculptures made with the Move. Now, a full world... now four people are controlling these in-game models and making them perform, sing, dance with Move controllers. It's... rather impossible to tell how they're controlling the models... almost like marrionette puppets. Huh... that's it. Kind of amazing, but difficulty to tell what's going on.

4:19 - No game from Quantic Dream, they're working on Beyond after all. Media Molecule takes the stage. They're showing off some hand drawing, saying they'd love to put it in-game. Their solution was the Move controller. Now showing a trailer of one of their artists sculpting with the Move controller.

4:17 - David Cage believes the PlayStation 4 can truly match CG films in gameplay, where realism is accurately captures. He's showing off an old dude displaying "subtle emotions." Indian tear. I'm crying and I don't even know why. Lydia spamming old man images at me.

4:15 - The next game will challenge your view of modern gaming. Of course it's David Cage and Quantic Gaming. He's talking in very obtuse and conceptual language.

4:12 - Very whimsical song playing, varied environments. It feels like Myst, in that there's just so much it's not even describable. Some sort of power cable mechanic for puzzles? Every environment is stacked with detail. It looks rather surprisingly beautiful.

4:11 - It's a puzzle game, but not just a normal one. Every puzzle has an idea inside of it that communicates to you in a nonverbal way. 25 hours of gameplay. In the release window, PS4 will be The Witness' exclusive platform. Trailer starting.

4:08 - Three new games coming up from small developers. First is indie, from creator of Braid. His next title will debut on PlayStation 4. Is this The Witness? Jonathan Blow takes the stage and is talking about his game. "The Witness takes place in an open world." "In the Witness we're trying to make the world as compact as possible." Interesting things around every corner, with everything placed with purpose and reason.

4:06 - Sucker Punch's next game, exclusive for the PlayStation 4. No official title yet. It has to be Infamous, right? Trailer is showing some superpowered beings with power over fire and what looks like wind. Infamous: Second Son.

4:03 - New games. "We all want to feel safe." Dude is talking about cameras and mobile phones. "Our security comes at a high price. Our freedom." "Imagine if a few people developed super powers." "How much control would any of us have over our own lives?"

4:01 - This isn't cockpit, this is true first person racing. A demo is being shown that's likely entirely pre-rendered, but he's not kidding. Insane detail. Gameplay trailer now. It's inside the car, so it's hard to see everything, but it does look rather amazing. Not the car models as much as the dust, lighting and shaders. PS4's tech is very impressive.

3:59 - The FPS of driving games. Even if you aren't in first, you can help your team. Send challenges from you mobile device at any time. All races are filled from start to finish with challenges. Not really sure what that's supposed to mean. They've gone "borderline insane" adding realistic details to every aspect of these cars.

3:57 - Evolution studios is making Drive Club and it's "all about team-based racing." They trademarked the name 9 years ago. You drive the very best cars in the world in the greatest locations in the world. They just needed the technology to do it. These are the guys that made Motorstorm.

3:55 - I would say half of what we've seen is in-engine cutsccemes as opposed to just gameplay. Kind of what we expect from Guerilla Games, but it still looks great. Official name is Killzone: Shadow Fall. CAR GAME NEXT.

3:52 - Now he has his gun and he's walking around, tons of voice-over. Cover based FPS. Lots of fire everywhere. Smoke in huge plumes. Gun looks as good as any other game has made.

3:50 - Guerilla has gone out out of their way to make this demo not brown. So much blue, green, pink, tons of color. The world looks alive in ways that Killzone has never looked before. He's wandering around the city peacefully, then all of a sudden explosion.

3:48 - Killzone: Shadowfall live demo, unless it's a trick. Wow, it looks amazing. Remember Killzone tricked us before with prerendered footage posed as actual gameplay. Holy crap, though... i want to believe. It looks amazing. Waterfall in the distance, tons of dust in the air, beautifully futuristic city.

3:47 - Guerilla Games Herman Hulst. KILLZONE HERE. WE GOT KILLZONE.

3:45 - There are a LOT of developers talking about how excited they are for PlayStation 4. Hell of a montage. Michael Denny from Worldwide Studios taking the stage.

3:42 - The world has changed! Lots of recapping what's great about the PlayStation 4. It mostly has to do with "shared experiences" and connectivity between devices.

3:40 - READY AT DAWN STUDIOS. DOUBLE FINE. QUANTIC DREAM. WORLDWIDE STUDIOS. Everyone talking about how excited they are for the PS4.

3:40 - "It (the Gaikai Cloud) and the PlayStation 4 will change how gamers play."

3:39 - Theoretically possible to get any game, PS1, PS2, PS3 up and running via the PlayStation Cloud service.

3:37 - With Gaikai the PS4 becomes a server and the Vita a client, with virtually no lag. NETFLIX, AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO, SONY UNLIMITED.

3:36 - Vita is the "ultimate companion device" for PS4. Transfer some games via remote play to the Vita.

3:35 - Developers can interract with you during your gameplay. WAT. This is a fightening future.

3:33 - This network will be dedicated, just to be clear, to games."

3:32 - FACEBOOK GUYS. AND USTREAM.

3:32 - "Imagine you're in the store, you see something that catches your eyes, you can press a button and play." "Instantly experience anything you like." "Pay only for the games that you fall in love with."

3:31 - "What we're creating is the fastest, most powerful network in the world." "Imperitive the PlayStation network offers a connected experience."

3:30 - Co-founder and CEO of Gaikai coming on stage. Dave Perry. "I can't tell you how excited the Gaikai team and I are excited to be working on the PlayStation."

3:29 - "PlayStation offers the best place to play." That's what I wanted to hear.

3:28 - Stream died for a brief amount of time.

3:27 - Tons of mobile connectivity. "Bringing you closer to the games you're excited about."

3:25 - Images of the new PlayStation 4 interface for sharing. You can go through the last few minutes of your gameplay, edit it, and publish.

3:24 - Dude is bragging that loading times are going to be a thing of the past in terms in terms of system function.

3:14 - "What do developers want?" Architecture to fascilitate their creative abilities. "Harnessing the potential of developers." A lot of word going around that that PS4 is much easier to developer for.

3:14 - "Nothing between you and the game." "Evangelize the message that gaming was fun."

3:12 - Going over the design of the PlayStation 3, as well as going over why the PlayStation 4 is necessary.

3:10 - They're going straight into the games! Or at least, giving the stage to the creative minds of the future.

3:09 - PlayStation is the place more gamers want to play. The PlayStation 4 has been announced.

3:08 - "It's designed to make accessing the content gamers love easier." Does that mean games will be cheaper? Or LIES!

3:07 - "A new platform was required."

3:06 - House is recapping everything they won't be covering, such as growth in mobile titles and indie support. "Reconceptualizing how the next generation gamer would want to play."

3:05 - Okay I dropped the quality. Good to go. Andrew House is onstage and talking about the Vita.

3:04 - This may be the worst live blog ever, because I'm literally not getting anything here. The stream is constantly frozen.

3:02 - We're watching a Sony montage video, where we're kind of recapping the past few years of commercials and game releases. It's REALLY laggy. We're dropping footage every couple of seconds. Stream viewers are up to 400,000 people.

3:00 - We have lift off! Dramatic music and the theater is being shown off.

2:59 - That music! Now we've got a party started.

2:54 - Trying to decipher the rotating PlayStation buttons in the repeating animation playing on the livestream. I think there's a code here. I think it's saying something like, "Used games are bad. Drink your ovaltine."

2:52 - Currently 245,000 people tuned in to Sony's livestream. Reports are saying that the event is actually very small, intimate.

2:45 - The livestream should begin in 15 minutes! I'm here shiving in excitement. I hope they announce Coolboarders 2013.

I guess I'm just in the wrong state of mind because I see such high end computers (including mine) and they have 12+GB of RAM.

True, realistically they should be allocating memory to address the engine / textures / ai / physics / models / network 8GB will cut it close but it can also bottleneck how well that GPU works under high level games. It seems to be the one thing these guys always come in low on. It would have been more of a relief to see high system and high video memory instead of wondering how they'll partition it and how high the performance is in a shared environment. In general it's been a bad system design which is why prior generations and high performance applications don't use it.

Still what they've done so far is another leap on what they've managed to pull off, just hoping they can deliver as display tech and next-gen engines emerge.